WASHINGTON, June 22 -- China is willing to maintain contact and coordination with the United States on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue in an effort to diffuse tension and push for resolution of the issue, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said Thursday.
Yang made the remark during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
The United States looks forward to enhancing cooperation with China on the issue to realize a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, Trump said.
At the meeting, Yang extended Chinese President Xi Jinping's sincere wishes to Trump and noted that the two countries have made new and important progress on bilateral ties following the leaders' meeting in Florida in April.
China is willing to work with the United States to stick to the overall direction of cooperation, maintain high-level interactions, broaden mutually beneficial cooperation and properly manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, in a bid to further bilateral ties, Yang said.
On Wednesday, China and the United States held the inaugural diplomatic and security dialogue at the U.S. State Department. It is one of four high-level mechanisms established during the Mar-a-Lago meeting between Xi and Trump.
At the meeting with Trump, Yang said the dialogue is an important step to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries. Both sides agreed that the dialogue was "constructive" and "fruitful," Yang added.
Yang said Xi looked forward to meeting with Trump during the G20 summit in Hamburg next month and to hosting the U.S. president for a state visit to China later this year.
Conveying his sincere wishes to Xi, Trump said he and Xi held a successful meeting at Mar-a-Lago and reached a lot of important consensus, and he was pleased to see the positive progress in bilateral cooperation in various areas following the meeting.
Trump said he looked forward to meeting with Xi during the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg and paying a state visit to China at Xi's invitation later this year. He also hoped that these high-level interactions will further promote the development of U.S.-China relations.